Rebecca's father has asked me to post here the text of the tribute, I was honoured to give at her funeral. Geoff Saltmarsh tribute to Rebecca, St Giles Church, 16 April 2013: This is not the reunion of The Saltmarsh Partnership that any of us would have wanted. TSP, as it was better known, was in business for 22 years and Rebecca played a pivotal part in the agency for half that time. All my colleagues and I are delighted and proud to have worked with such a fun, dedicated, conscientious and, above all, highly-creative public relations professional. Whatever the issue - a crisis situation, a difficult client, a problematic journalist or the need for a new campaign angle – we all knew we could count on Becks to apply her tenacity or tact, whacky idea or classic PR approach. She was truly an all-rounder and one who made a real difference to TSP in so many ways. She also had a great ability to pick up on trends and turn them to exceptional use for campaigns on behalf of clients. She always seemed to know what was in fashion and how this could be adapted for outstanding PR work. I remember interviewing her in the summer of 2001 and instinctively knowing within a matter of minutes that she was the person I wanted for the job. She was clearly less convinced because when, not having had a response to my job offer, I called her, she nonchalantly explained she was on her way to watch the tennis at Wimbledon and hadn’t made a final decision. I wasn’t pleased. But I resolved to be patient and that proved a wise decision as a day or so later, Becks confirmed she would join us and she never looked back. Apart from her obvious PR skills, she brought with her valuable experience of a large agency, having previously worked in London for the international firm Hill and Knowlton. She made no secret of the fact that she hadn’t enjoyed it there and felt more at home in a smaller organisation. She certainly made her mark. For the first time we had just been asked to provide an account executive to work a day a week in the client’s own offices. As this entailed a journey of more than an hour from London, I don’t think Rebecca enjoyed that experience either – particularly bearing in mind she never struck me as a natural ‘morning person’. Nonetheless, she very much made that account her own, establishing for herself a strong reputation with the client and demonstrating to all of us that she had great depth to her capabilities. A major landmark for the agency and Rebecca came in 2002, the year after she joined us, when we won the Hong Kong Tourist Board account. This was down to Rebecca’s outstanding effort. I remember the hours the team put in, researching and planning the pitch. Now an account manager and earmarked to handle the mainstream consumer PR element of the account, Rebecca worked long into the night to finalise our presentation a couple of days before we were due to present it. We won the account, thanks to that amazing work. It was a major coup for us and the team under Rebecca achieved some outstanding results. The most memorable of those came about as a result of a crisis, another area of PR in which Rebecca excelled. The SARS virus originated in Hong Kong in 2003 and quickly spread across the region and further afield. Ultimately, the World Health Organisation advised against travel to Hong Kong, effectively closing it to tourists, a measure which remained in place for months. As the tourist board’s UK agency there was little we could do during that time except plan a PR campaign for when that travel advice was lifted. Rebecca led on this brilliantly and it was a plan rolled out to great effect once Hong Kong had the all-clear. Within a matter of days we had GMTV in Hong Kong broadcasting live every weekday breakfast-time for an entire week into millions of homes in the UK. The number of British visitors to Hong Kong went back to pre-SARS levels within three months of the all-clear and that PR recovery plan won the top accolade in the tourist board’s annual marketing awards. It really was Rebecca’s creativity which set her apart. You always knew when we gathered for one of those dreaded brainstorms to come up with ideas for a client or potential client, that Rebecca would demonstrate enormous enthusiasm and be at the forefront of the creative thinking. Most of the time she would be bang on the money, with a cracking idea that had not occurred to any of the rest of us. Sometimes she would be completely whacky, occasionally entirely off the wall. On notable occasion – and I cannot now remember the context – she had the crazy idea of using drag queens for some form of PR stunt. Whilst we always said at brainstorms that there is no such thing as a bad idea, this suggestion cracked us all up. Undaunted and happy to take the mickey out of herself, Rebecca would regularly trot out the same idea at subsequent brainstorms, particularly when we had fallen into a lull and the laughter would re-energise us. While Rebecca, as I have said was a genuine all-rounder, with exceptional creative talents, a shrewd eye for trends and unflappable in a crisis, she completely set herself apart latterly when the digital revolution started to take hold. Back in 2007 we as an agency realised – like most of our competitors – that we were in danger of being left behind as the use of social media started to gather pace. We began to research the implications of this development and how it could and should be harnessed for PR activity. It was quickly obvious Rebecca knew more about this than the rest of us put together. As a result, we thought we could steal a march on our competitors by forming a sister agency, Surf PR, the first online specialist travel PR consultancy, of which Rebecca was a founding director. She grasped this opportunity with gusto. With her customary explosion of enthusiasm, she drove the website design, created the agency’s credentials and put together its service offering. Within a matter of weeks, Surf had its first client, The Adventure Company, for whom Surf built a huge social network profile and subsequently designed the client’s own in-house social media facility. Surf took the inaugural Best Use of Social Media category in the following year’s Travel Marketing Awards for that work, a testament to just how on the button Rebecca was with her knowledge and application of digital media. Indeed, she became more widely recognised for that expertise, being asked on a number of occasions to speak at seminars, giving case histories of subsequent campaigns, including one for the Norwegian Tourist Board, for whom Rebecca designed an online game to promote visits to the Northern Lights. I have to confess to having been genuinely awe-struck at the depth and extent of Rebecca’s knowledge in this field. On a couple of occasions I went with her to initial meetings with potential new clients and Rebecca unfailingly was able to speak at length on any question she was asked. Not only could I not follow her responses, I hadn’t even understood the original question and was delighted – and relieved – to leave all such future meetings to her alone. Outside of the office and business commitments, Rebecca was simply a wonderfully fun person to be with. She would demonstrate the same level of enthusiasm when throwing herself into any social occasion. Whether it was enjoying a pint with a colleague or two at one of our locals or a bigger get together, Becks was brilliant company. She was incredibly funny, always good-humoured, occasionally over the top but always a delight. Rebecca was a lovely, lovely person, in the office and socially. A brilliant professional, a kind, considerate and helpful colleague. She inspired us all with her creativity and entertained us with her wit. She won admiration and respect from everyone with whom and for whom she worked. We loved being with her – and occasionally Ronnie - in the office and socialising with her away from it. None of us can believe we have lost her, for that sense of loss is so deep-felt and heart-rending. We can barely imagine the sense of loss her family, particularly dear Lucas, and other friends must be feeling. We are proud and delighted to have worked with Rebecca and time will not fade the countless memories with which she has left us.